Theatre is Mark Bellamy’s sandbox, and there are certain plays that allow him a licence to play his heart out.

Such is the case with Clive Francis’s stage adaptation of the Graham Greene novel Our Man in Havana, which runs at Vertigo Theatre from March 16 through April 9.

Our Man in Havana is a joint production between Vertigo and Saskatoon’s Persephone Theatre, where its scheduled two-week run in February had to be extended because word of mouth had performances selling out.

Set in 1950s Cuba, Our Man in Havana tells the story of Jim Wormold, a British expatriate who accepts a government job in Havana only to find himself caught up in a web of espionage.

Doug McKeag plays Wormold with Kent Allen, Julie Orton and Robbie Towns playing the other 48 characters in the story.

It’s this opportunity to work on a play where actors are changing character as fast as they can change costumes that drew Bellamy to Our Man in Havana and previously to Vertigo and Stage West’s The 39 Steps and Alberta Theatre Projects’ Around the World in 80 Days.

“For a director, the appeal in shows that require actors to play multiple characters is that it gives you licence to be really theatrical,” says Bellamy.

“Actors love them because they’re allowed to get wacky with certain characterizations and audiences are in on the joke and they have great fun watching the actors pull off the amazing feat of changing characters, often right before the eyes of the audience.”

He admits it takes a certain kind of actor to play in these sandboxes.

“You need actors with amazing vocal and character ranges if these plays are to work,” he says.

“They can’t just rely on a new costume but must be able to completely change persona simply by changing a hat or coat.”

Bellamy says such actors “love the workout these plays give them.

“They get to stretch their acting muscles and to play extreme versions of characters and that is immensely exciting.”

He stresses “though it may look as if it’s pure wacky fun for the actors, it amounts to much more than that.

“There are always characters in the play you want the audience to care about. If it were just all crazy, wacky fun it would get tiring for the audience.”

These small cast, multiple character shows are becoming extremely popular with theatre companies.

“This trend of using two or three actors to tell a complicated story with multiple characters started with a show like Travels With My Aunt (which Vertigo presented two seasons ago).

“That play showed how you can put a novel on stage. The 39 Steps showed how you can put a movie, in that case Alfred Hitchcock’s 1935 thriller, on stage.”

Our Man in Havana will have previews March 11 to 15 before its opening night on March 16. Performances run Tuesdays through Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. with Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2 p.m. For tickets call the Vertigo box-office at 403-221-3708 or go to vertigotheatre.com.

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